The Gospel of Wealth: The Lives of the Super-Wealthy during the Gilded Age

Comments (0)

Transcript of The Gospel of Wealth: The Lives of the Super-Wealthy during the Gilded Age

Newport, Rhode Islandbecame the center of wealthy society in the summertimeThe "Robber Barons" of the 19th CenturyAfter the Civil War, American industry boomed (grew very quickly)Some business leaders, through hard work, clever strategies, and ruthless competition, became extremely wealthyRailroads led the waySteel grew along with railroadsThe discovery of oil in Pennsylvania offered a new opportunity for wealthJohn D. RockefellerAndrew CarnegieWilliam VanderbiltThey were ruthless, driven menwho used questionable tactics to make their businesses successfulA scientist named Darwin had atheory that only the strong membersof a species survive, making the species strongerOthers thought this applied to humans too; Social Darwinists thought the wealthy should be left alone to get strongerbenefiting the whole countryThe wealthy in America lived very differentlives than the rest of the countryThey owned magnificent, opulent, expensive homesThe wealthy had lavish, expensive partiesAt one New York City mansion, the host invited his guests to bring their horses to his home; the horses and guests were both fed expensive meals.They formed "trusts" whichcontrolled many corporationsand gave them monopoliesThis is why they were called Robber Barons; they were rich like royalty (barons are like princes,) but earned their money through "questionable" ways of doingbusiness (did they rob people?)But, perhaps surprisingly,they decided to be generous later in lifeAndrew Carnegie wrote an articlecalled the "Gospel of Wealth"He said the wealthy had an obligation to society to share their tremendous wealth. "Any man who dies rich, dies disgraced"All the Robber Barons did thesame. After they made sure theirfamilies would be "comfortable", they gave away hundreds of millionsof dollars.They donated their money to research, hospitals, universities,and peace-keeping organizations.some people still didn't trust them; after all, these men were hated bymany for the ways they had lived their lives.This cartoon calls Andrew Carnegie a hypocrite, for being rich, then criticizing the richRockefeller's company was comparedto a giant greedy octopusVanderbilt was shown as a controlling puppet-master of the railroad businessWhat do you think of these men?Write a SIM paragraph answering thisquestion. Make sure to refer to some of the documents you've seen today or in class(nice facial hair)

Meanwhile, workers in coalmines, factories, and steel millslived much different lives thanthe wealthy.